Jeff88DL Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Car: EA82 88 Subaru DL fwd n/a 266k The past few days have been extremely icey. Driving to and from work I noticed my rear end tends to track slightly in a direction other then straight. I thought it was just the ice until the problem got worse. I parked my car, got out, saw that both rear wheels were cambered in at the top. WTF??? so I drive home, go to sleep. This morning I look under my car, to see my rear cross member snapped in half. I will soon post a picture of it, it is unbelieveable. I plan on jacking the car up, and welding the crossmember back together. I am curious if anyone has ever heard of this happening, or has experienced it themselves. I guess my car is a write off at this point eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indrid cold Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Interesting... .as I have the same exact rig & close to same miles, ... I will have to dive under and give things a shake. I'm still learning on these things so no idea and too dark and cold to go out and look now yea.. a photo would be nice of what failed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 2, 2006 Author Share Posted December 2, 2006 Interesting... .as I have the same exact rig & close to same miles, ... I will have to dive under and give things a shake. I'm still learning on these things so no idea and too dark and cold to go out and look now yea.. a photo would be nice of what failed... I have a photo on my cell I could show. Its pretty poor quality though. I'll post it anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Rust? GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 2, 2006 Author Share Posted December 2, 2006 Rust? GD Yeah thats what I'm thinking, still haven't looked at it to much. To busy. Do I need to host my images and post the link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 2, 2006 Author Share Posted December 2, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 2, 2006 Author Share Posted December 2, 2006 Rust? GD Looks pretty rusty eh. I think the combination of rusting, and my driving habits, which apparently cause great stress on that area, are the main factors here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy D Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 sure its a crappy pic but hey it gets the point across that that sh*t is f**king broken:headbang: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Wow - I have never seen or heard of that on an EA82. I've heard of people breaking torsion bars on the EA81's from rust but never the tube itself. I think you may just have a manufacturing defect. But it does look rusty right on the bottom - maybe just rusted through and the the crack just spread from there. Anyway - not too horrible to replace the whole tube. Might be too rusty to weld back up. You could try using some C channel under it and weld that on for extra strength. Might last a while till you can source a new tube. If the car really is that rusty, I would look at the strut towers, etc in the rear. I've seen cases where the coil-overs push through the body and end up in the cabin. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffast Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 someone over on the xt6 board had the same thing happen with an xt, i had seen pics that sucks, good luck getting it fixed, i believe you can remove the whole tube just by unbolting it, might make it easier to weld Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Just finished cutting up a 2WD , and got a good look at that tube. Yeah, it un-bolts from the body, so repairs "may be" easier if you remove it. Then again, if rust caused that, maybe you won't be able to get the bolts out that hold the tube in.. When I 1st looked at the pic, I thought it might be a weld seam that broke. But looking at the one here, it don't look to have a weld in that area. As mentioned in previous post, weld some angle iron to the tube for a temporary fix. Just be mindful that the gas tank is right there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 I ended up just jacking up the crossmember directly under the split. This closed the gap and allowed me to weld on a few strips of bar stock. It seems to be holding well. There is a ton of rust along that tube. I am suprised they didn't use 1/4 inch steel for that area, it seems to be a weak spot. The soobs lives again, no surprise here. Thanks for the replys everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 I ended up just jacking up the crossmember directly under the split. This closed the gap and allowed me to weld on a few strips of bar stock. It seems to be holding well. There is a ton of rust along that tube. I am suprised they didn't use 1/4 inch steel for that area, it seems to be a weak spot. It's not - the weak point is your climate conditions, and the rust prevention history of your car. 1/4" would add far too much weight to the assembly, and frankly isn't needed. But 18 YEARS of rust and salt will eat anything. I've seen military trucks fall apart from it too, and talk about overbuilt GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff88DL Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 It's not - the weak point is your climate conditions, and the rust prevention history of your car. GD Other than some sort of cathodic protection system, what could I have done to protect my cars metal work from the dreaded iron oxide? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4x4_Welder Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Paint it religiously, check thoroughly for nicked paint on a monthly basis, touch up, then still deal with what the previous owner didn't do for maintenance. On the other hand, just replacing what breaks, keep an eye on structural areas for signs of rust, and repair as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Pretty much - in the Army we perform monthly inspections for that sort of thing, and armed with some sandpaper and a rattle can of rust resistant CARC paint we deal with any small amounts of rust before they can get out of hand. Then every 5 years or so the vehicles go in for a complete CARC paint job and any areas of concern are sandblasted, etc. I've seen 50 year old military rigs in Hawaii that were still on the road - looking pretty nasty after 50 years, but they were still rolling, and the frame bits were solid enough. You could stick you hand THROUGH the door's at bottom - salt air eventually rusted them from the inside out. We were replaceing brake lines on hummers that were only 10 years old cause of the rust. And some of them had already been replaced once. Hawaii is WORSE than Alaska on cars. 10 years is a good run in the civilian car market over there. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgd73 Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 It's not - the weak point is your climate conditions, and the rust prevention history of your car. 1/4" would add far too much weight to the assembly, and frankly isn't needed. But 18 YEARS of rust and salt will eat anything. I've seen military trucks fall apart from it too, and talk about overbuilt GD I agree with gd! Too much over oem will target another area. The wagons especially have a signal game to work with each other as one body. My area breaks the body, I see from photo yours targeted something very strong by the rest of the body's standards. Road poison or something ... I just fixed back end in front of bumper with some sheet aluminum.. one hole needs whole back end symmetrically covered to keep conquered the bad signal targets. Odd injury you have there.. I am going to bang on mine soon to verify integrity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 a signal game to work with each other as one body. whole back end symmetrically covered to keep conquered the bad signal targets. If you line the headliner with tinfoil, the signals will get confused and the car won't rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4x4_Welder Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Too much over oem will target another area. The wagons especially have a signal game to work with each other as one body. My area breaks the body, I see from photo yours targeted something very strong by the rest of the body's standards. Road poison or something ... I just fixed back end in front of bumper with some sheet aluminum.. one hole needs whole back end symmetrically covered to keep conquered the bad signal targets. Odd injury you have there.. I am going to bang on mine soon to verify integrity. What?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 What?! +1 .... I think Did anyone get the number of that Bus? GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushbasher Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 The car certainly could have come better prepared from the factory. The design of the tubular crossmember tends to get crap settling in it, holding in moisture and causing the rust. Im surprised its not seen more often. I broke mine in half when I crashed my lifted wagon into a big stump. The area where it broke was as thin as paper, all rusted from the inside. From the outside it still looked great, in fact it still had the original black paint on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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